


Uncommon (TFP!Starscream X Human!OC)

by SemiMythril



Category: Transformers: Prime
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:14:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23857432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SemiMythril/pseuds/SemiMythril
Summary: Aerospace engineering couldn't get more interesting for Roxanne (22) when a strange F-16 crashes into her forest backyard. Just another repair job turns into a tense, life or death situation for both her and Starscream faced with sarcastic quips and snappy comebacks. After all, who wants to be stuck between a killer robot and a bad place.
Relationships: Megatron/Starscream (Transformers), Starscream (Transformers)/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 29





	1. This day couldn't get any worse

It started with one order: to supervise one of the biggest energon mines occupied by the Decepticons. The addition of Ultra Magnus and a new and improved Optimus Prime had caused the Autobots to become bolder in their exploits. Starscream had been inside the mine supervising the transportation of one of their largest supplies when the Autobots attacked. Blaster shots were the first things to be heard from the cave entrance as Starscream turned around to investigate.

"What is going on-"

"Take out the sentries!" Ultra Magnus's voice suddenly sounded as the large blue commander took the lead and ran into the mine. In response, Arcee followed in her vehicle mode and sped past him, transforming and launching herself up onto the upper levels. She started to strike down the Vehicons stationed there before they even registered her presence. 

"Attack! Attack you fools!" Starscream screeched at the Eradicons.

The Eradicons and Vehicons fired at the Autobots endlessly, though the majority of every single shot missed. Per usual.

Useless, Starscream thought to himself with a silent growl.

"Why must I do everything myself?!" Starscream snarled in rage and raised his right arm, priming his missile for fire.

Optimus Prime entered the cave next, followed by the other Autobot scum. The seeker pointed the projectile directly at the oversized powerhouse and fired with a clench of his fist, striking the Prime as he blocked the missile with his arms. Optimus was knocked back by the force into a wall of energon, causing a small explosion, which did further damage.

"Optimus!" Arcee shouted from the second tier and jumped down whilst firing at Vehicons. She knocked out about half of them in a matter of minutes, which pissed Starscream off further.

"Destroy them! Destroy them, you worthless scrapheaps!" Starscream yelled, firing his second missile at some energon. "Lord Megatron will have our heads if we lose this mine!"

The following explosion slowed down the Autobot's pace a bit, giving the Vehicons and Eradicons the chance to advance. Starscream roared, transformed both of his forearms into blasters, and fired at the Autobots, managing to nail Bumblebee in the chest.

But the whole Autobot entourage was here, which made the Decepticon's defensive actions more difficult. Bulkhead came forward and assisted Optimus and Ultra Magnus with smashing through the first line of defense. Arcee, Bumblebee, and Smokescreen jumped up to the second and third tiers of the mine and fired down from there. They held up for maybe a good twenty minutes before Starscream was the only thing between them and the mine.

Of course, he had already alerted the Nemesis of this attack, but the Autobots had made significant ground. He could only plead that Lord Megatron got there in time. And if he did, plead some more that he didn't rip his head off at first sight for failing so miserably. Perhaps he could blame the stupidity of Eradicons...

His thoughts were cut off as Optimus aimed his blaster directly at the second-in-command's face. "Starscream. Surrender now. You are outnumbered and overrun."

"Or don't," Bulkhead huffed and slammed his fist into his hand as he came up on the Autobot leader's right. "We'd be fine with taking you down as well."

There was a moment of hesitation, but if Megatron didn't kill him for this failure, he would 100% kill him for even thinking of the word 'surrender'.

"I'd never surrender!" Starscream screeched and aimed his blaster at Optimus. "In the name of Lord Megatron!"

He fired at Optimus Prime, knocking him backward. Instantly, the Autobots fired back. Starscream dodged as many shots as he could, but Arcee managed to make a direct hit to one of his wings. Pain shot through the area around the blast wound due to the seeker's sensitive wings. Starscream screamed in pain just before Bulkhead charged forward and slammed his wrecking ball into Starscream’s stomach. The impact shattered the glass of his cockpit, exposing the wires and controls underneath as he was slammed into the cave wall, which cracked on impact.

Starscream landed on the ground on hands and knees and coughed up some energon. The impact and severed wires caused his mid-section to spark. He could feel the energon leaking heavily from the wound. His wings twitched behind him angrily as the bases were now throbbing with pain too, and he glared up at Bulkhead as the brute came in for another swing. Starscream let out a high-pitched scream and narrowly dodged the attack. He scrambled back to his pedes and blasted Bulkhead in the back. In return, Smokescreen landed several shots on his back, hitting a combination of back and wings. With a loud yell of pain, he fell forward and caught himself before firing back at the Autobot rookie. But as Optimus Prime had said, he was outnumbered, and the Autobots were attacking from every direction, leaving him no chance to counterattack. 

The second-in-command finally decided to do what he often did best: retreat. He transformed into his sleek jet mode and flew briskly out of the exit of the mine. Autobot fire was quick to follow his tail. Arcee dashed outside after him and managed to land an, albeit lucky, shot on his thruster.

"GAAAAH!" Starscream agonized scream sounded out as he flew off, trying to stay in flight long enough to escape.

Roxanne was currently in a large hangar reserved for her family working on a plane model for her little brother. He had asked for a model of a C-17 for his birthday, and her dad had asked her to make one for him. Her inspiration was directly in front of her. A giant C-17 was parked in the hangar that her father had borrowed. He worked for the United States Air Force and had managed to pull some strings to get the aircraft for a few weeks.

"Sissy!!" a high pitched voice screamed abruptly from outside the back end of the hangar.

"Alex, I'm busy!" Roxanne screamed back.

A young, seven-year-old boy then ran into the hangar and yanked hard on her sleeve, causing her to drop a small screw.

"Alex! I said I'm busy!" she snarled at her brother. "Now you made me drop a-"

"Roxy!! There's a plane falling from the sky!" Alex interrupted and rushed back outside.

"Wait- wait, what?!" Roxanne yelped and hurried after him. And sure as hell there was a plane falling from the sky towards the forest behind the military hangar.

"What model is it, sis?" he asked anxiously.

She squinted at the aircraft, trying to make out its structure. "I can't make it out...I think...it's a fighter jet..?"

"Like the one daddy flies?!" Alex asked, eyes wide with terror. "He went on a mission today, right?"

"Yes, but he's far away from here, ok?" she lied to calm him down as her own heart skipped a beat. She didn't actually know where he was stationed this time. "It could be any model of jet, you know that."

The plane crashed a little way into the forest and both of them could feel the ground tremble beneath them from the impact. Smoke could be seen rising from the crash site as Roxanne attempted to see if she could make out the wreckage from here. As she thought, no dice. She contemplated whether or not to go see if she could locate the crash, and chose the former mostly out of curiosity and admittedly, mild panic.

"Go back inside, Alex," Roxanne told her brother. "I'm going to go check it out."

"I wanna come!" he complained.

"No. Listen, you have an important job to do. You have to call the ambulance people and stay outside the front of the hangar to tell them where I am, ok?"

"Oh. Ok!" he nodded and ran to the front door, eager to help.

Roxanne let out a nervous breath before starting the trek into the forest towards the smoke.

It took ten minutes or so of her stumbling over branches, rocks, and thorns for her to reach the plane's drag trail. She carefully scaled down the massive scar in the earth and ran her hand over the ridges in the dirt. The lines that crossed the gorge met in the middle, pointing to her right. Looking up, the faint remains of what was a previously heavy smoking crash could be seen against the blue sky and fluffy white clouds. It really was a good day for flying.

She followed the lines and the smoke, being careful not to trip over any rocks or fallen trees. The deep trail was also littered with various sizes of scrap metal and stained with a strange, light blue substance.

As she got closer to the crash site, she could begin to make out the type of plane. It looked much like an F-16 Fighting Falcon but had a few strange alterations. At the time though, Roxanne didn't think much of the alterations. She hadn't seen her father's personal fighter jet many times, but she knew he favored the F-16. And just the slight notion of this plane being his increased her mild worry to a significant panic.

"Oh no...Dad, you better not be dead…" she sputtered out loud and sprinted the rest of the way to the plane. She carefully scaled the earth and wreckage and heard a soft groan of pain. Her heart starting beating faster.

She stumbled over the broken plating to the cockpit and with some hesitation, forced herself to look inside. It was shattered open. No one was inside, which provided a small bit of relief. But then where was the pilot? Maybe he fell out?

"No, no," she told herself. "He...or she, probably ejected before the crash...Yeah...Like a good pilot would do...My dad- Whoever it was is fine."

Roxanne took a few calming breaths before assessing the damage done to the plane. There seemed to be a lot of dark, ashy spots. The remains of blast wounds? She slid off onto the solid ground and began walking around the F-16, and her first observation was that its thruster had been blasted by...something. No wonder it crashed. The right wing had several wounds in it, including blast marks and some severed wires jutting out from the seams. The other wing was more intact, but just barely attached to the jet anymore. The tail of the jet, on the other hand, had been completely ripped off, most likely by the trees, and the nose was crumpled and severely damaged. Roxanne took out a notepad and pen she kept in her back pocket and began to jot down all the damages she could see. She didn't even want to try and imagine the amount of damage to its internal structure. As she did, the same groan from earlier was heard.

"Hello?" she called out in response.

She waited a few moments for an answer and when no one did, she finished her notes and continued walking around. "Da- er, pilot! If you can hear me, answer me! Or at least make some kind of noise again?"

She listened but heard nothing. "I know you're here somewhere! Come out! I promise I won't hurt you!"

Once again she listened but heard nothing. Roxanne searched under the plane, around the plane, and in the trees too, calling out a quick "hello" periodically. She couldn't find anyone. And just before she could call out again, she heard noticed sirens wailing faintly but obviously in the distance. An ambulance had taken a side route into the forest about half a mile away, and several paramedics came rushing to the location., followed shortly by firefighters and policemen.

"The young man told us to come here," one of the paramedics told her. "Is the pilot inside the plane?"

"No, but I think he or she is here somewhere. I heard them groan. But I can't seem to find them…" Roxanne explained.

"Thank you, miss. We'll keep looking," the medic nodded and went to ask everyone to spread out.

Roxanne stepped off to the side to observe the process. Groups of all emergency services were scanning the trees, bushes, ground, etc. looking for the pilot. And as she watched, a kind of gut feeling hit her as the minutes droned on. She didn't think they would find the pilot. Roxanne didn't know why she thought that or why her gut made her feel like that, but something was telling her that she wasn't going to get to see them pull the pilot out of a ditch or something.

After a few more moments of pressing silence, she decided that it was most likely time to head home. Alex was probably wondering what was going on, and knowing him, if she didn't get back, he'd come rushing out to join her.

So Roxanne approached one of the policemen scanning the nearby trees and started, "Excuse me, am I allowed to head home now? I assume you guys have this under control."

The man looked down from his upwards gaze and made eye contact. He seemed to ponder the question a moment, though she didn't know what there was to ponder about, and answered, "We'll have to interrogate you and your brother since you witnessed the plane crash first hand."

That wasn't entirely accurate, but he wasn't wrong.

"Alright, we can do that at our hangar," Roxanne nodded in compliance. She would just have to answer whatever questions they had.

The policeman nodded and was about to go back to tree scanning when she spoke up again, "Can I at least take the jet home? I'd like to try to repair it."

This time, he turned to her with a mildly perplexed expression. "I'm afraid this is a military jet, miss. It should be in the hands of someone qualified to repair it.

"I'd have to say I'm qualified. I'm majoring in aerospace engineering, and my father is an Air Force pilot and has me registered in the system as an official mechanic."

The officer raised an eyebrow suspiciously and paused to think about what she had said. "I'll let the chief decide whether to let you take the jet or not when they interrogate you. They can haul it to wherever you want afterward."

\---

The interrogation didn't take long. Most of them were just questions about what Roxanne witnessed and her qualifications. They confirmed her claims in the military database records and hooked up the plane to the back of a truck to haul it back to her hangar while the paramedics continued searching. Roxanne followed on foot, making sure to gather large pieces that had fallen off that were still salvageable. She glanced over at some of the strange liquid occasionally as she followed, but decided to think about it later. Right now, she just wanted to work on the F-16. Anything to distract herself from the daunting thought that her father could be missing or dead.

After the police got the F-16 to her hangar, she made sure to place large fuel barrels under the places the strange liquid was leaking from. It seemed like that liquid powered this apparently modified version of an F-16 Fighting Falcon. If that was the case, then she had to collect as much of the leaking parts as possible. It probably wouldn't be able to be bought at the nearest 7-1-1. Roxanne figured it was probably just some alternative jet fuel to help the environment or something like that. Maybe it was even dangerous. But she kind of wanted to be able to power the jet once she finished any repairs. Even though Roxanne had some doubts if the fuel would still work after being used, it was worth a shot.

A few police officers had stayed to ask Alex a few questions as well about the incident, such as what he had witnessed. As soon as the police finished their interrogation and left, she began working on the large plane stationed a good distance away from the C-17.

"Did you find the pilot, sissy?" Alex, who was sitting nearby, asked.

"No," Roxanne mumbled as she worked on repairing the left wing. "But I'm sure they found them. They're probably in the hospital right now."

"Ok…" Alex muttered. "I hope they're ok..."

Roxanne worked in silence for a few minutes as her brother watched on. After checking the structural integrity of both wings, the young woman ended up removing them from the main body to rebuild them basically from scratch. She started with the left wing and began to look over its internal structure.

"Odd," she hummed to herself. "It doesn't have a standard wing skeleton…"

"What?" Alex piped up.

"Can you get me a fifteen-inch wire pipeline?" Roxanne asked, ignoring his question.

"Magic word?"

"Please?"

Alex got up and rummaged around the supply crates in the back before bringing her the pipe, albeit almost larger than he was.

"Thank you," Roxanne nodded as she worked to replace the broken pipe.

"What's wrong with it?" her brother asked curiously as he peeked around her shoulder to get a better look at what she was doing.

"Well, I'm pretty sure a good amount of the damage is from the crash. But there is a lot of evidence of a battle of some kind," she answered while working. "The thrusters were blown up. And these ash marks look like they were formed by gunfire."

"Can you tell what did it?" Alex asked, crossing his arms as he commented, "Because who would shoot down something as awesome as a Fighting Falcon?"

"Some people just don't like planes," Roxanne answered. She was unable to bring herself to tell him about wars and conflict and how aerial warfare worked.

"Well they should," he pouted with a huff and stuck his nose up in fake contempt.

She chuckled and removed a bit of plating on the wing to reconnect some chips. "Of course, bro."

As Alex started to continue on his spiel, the doorbell rang from their house that connected to the hangar via a side door. The sound distracted him and any anger towards plane haters dissipated.

Roxanne didn't look away from her work as her brother shouted, "I'll get it!" and ran off.

She smirked in amusement and continued on her work. It would probably take months to repair the whole plane, but at least it would keep her occupied. She picked up her large frame welder and the welding mask next to it, then put the mask on and started the tool. She began to weld pieces of pipe and frame structure back into the correct shape, being careful to avoid the delicate wires and circuitry around the area. Normally, she would remove anything that could catch fire before welding, but they seemed to be deeply rooted throughout the whole wing, which she found unusual. Usually, the wiring was focused around particular areas of the structure, so it could be easily removed and decrease the chances of the wing exploded as soon as it's hit. This model had wiring everywhere. Annoying, and a minor setback, but not unavoidable.

She also began the process of removing the few fuel pipes one by one throughout the wing to repair the several gashes in them. Once she knew all the piping she needed to repair was out, she set them aside and exchanged her frame welder for an angle grinder. She went up to the front of the plane and started slicing away at the distorted metal, carving off pieces to replace later. As she did, Roxanne heard the door to the hangar open. She didn't look back from her work, assuming it was Alex.

"Miss Roxanne Carter, I presume?" an adult voice asked instead.

Roxanne still didn't turn around. She turned off the grinder, opened a few panels near where she was cutting, and dove halfway in to get a good look at the state of the engine. She answered, half-muffled and mildly annoyed, "Yeah, that's me. Who are you, what do you want, and why are you here?"

"My name is Agent William Fowler. Your brother let me in," he answered. "What I want is to ask you a few questions."

"The police already did that, thank you," she muttered back as the young woman removed more than several severed and damaged wires. "You know the way out."

"The police did not ask the questions I wish to ask you, Miss Carter," Agent Fowler explained. "My questions are more...government-related."

"First of all," she started and popped out from inside the nose. She lifted the welding mask off her face and placed it on her workbench before continuing, "the name is not Miss Carter, it's not Miss Roxanne Carter or anything of that caliber. My name is Roxanne. And if that's too difficult to remember, then just call me Roxy."

"Alright then, Roxy," the agent huffed in annoyance. As Roxanne got a first good look at him, she noted he was wearing a gray suit and black tie. He also had a white undershirt and quite the muffin top. "Care to answer my questions now?"

Roxanne narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously before walking over in exasperation. "Can I see your badge myself?"

Agent Fowler took his badge out of his pocket opened it to show her. Roxanne took a good look at the details, since she's seen agent badges before, and after being satisfied that he was indeed a government official, she stated, "Fine. I'll answer your questions, Flower."

"It's Fowler,” he huffed, put his badge away, and took out a notepad.

"Whatever."

“The first thing I want to ask is simple. How long has your father been in the military?”

"Probably 30 something years," Roxanne crossed her arms.

"Alright then, second question. Do you know what that is?" Fowler asked and pointed to the jet.

"Of course. It's an F-16 Fighting Falcon military jet."

Agent Fowler raised an eyebrow in suspicion. She returned the expression.

"What? Do you not know your jets? The Fighting Falcon is-"

"That's not it, ma'am- sorry, Roxy. Just a...passing thought."

He moved on from the question, which piqued her curiosity since obviously, she didn't give him the right answer. But Roxanne didn't know what else it would be. Maybe it was a jet modeled after an F-16 that she didn't know about? Like a secret government project or something? Eh. She decided it best not to overthink it.

"Next," he continued. "How much do you know about the blue substance coming from...the F-16?"

"Nothing, really," she shrugged. "I'm guessing it's some kind of alternative energy-saving fuel or something like that."

"And you've been collecting it?"

"Of course. If this jet runs on that stuff, I need some of its power sources to power it. I'm only 50% sure it's reusable, but I thought it was worth a shot."

"You don't know about its properties or anything of that type, do you?"

"Of course not. I'm not a scientist that knows how to reverse engineer a DNA strand. I'm an aerospace engineer. Somewhat in training. The only thing I would know anything about is the jet."

"I see…" the agent hummed thoughtfully and closed his notepad. "Well due to government protocol, we'll have to confiscate the jet and the fuel."

"Hold up! No. Way," Roxanne snapped suddenly and defensively. "I won't let you take this jet until I fix it and know for certain it's not my father's."

"Miss Roxanne, I can assure you this is not your father's," Agent Fowler stated firmly. "Now hand it over to custody. We have the equipment necessary to repair it just fine."

Roxanne scoffed, "You can't take it unless you have the proper warrant. We're on an air force base, so it's already protected by the government by legality. Besides, it's registered under my name for repairs as an aerospace engineer here. It's in the system. It's my job. And you can't be sure of its owner unless you met the pilot. But for now, I'm in charge of it. And you're not getting this jet until I finish fixing it.”

Agent Fowler glared at her, and Roxanne glared right back.

"Hand over the jet. You have no authority to keep it."

"Wrong. And you need a warrant," she reiterated. "It's registered under my name. It's now my job to repair it. So you can't have it. Not unless I say otherwise."


	2. In the meantime

Ultra Magnus paced back in forth in the Autobot base, eager to hear from Agent Fowler. The rest of the team, excluding Optimus and Ratchet, were out on patrol. The kids were hanging out on the upper platform installed near Ratchet's work area in the meantime.

Fowler had said earlier that Starscream crashed inside the boundaries of a US Air force base. According to him, this should make it easier to obtain Starscream's body with little resistance. He stared at the ground as he paced, focusing his thoughts on what they would do with the Decepticon second-in-command. He must be severely damaged by the crash and his battle wounds. Ratchet would most likely request to at least patch up the traitorous mech, and he was definitely more squeamish than Soundwave. So getting information from him might prove to be easy...Then again, maybe not. He was anxious to find out.

A servo was suddenly felt on his shoulder, and the commander turned around to see Optimus standing behind him.

"Ultra Magnus. You seem troubled," the Prime observed.

"I'm just...anxious, sir. If we can apprehend Starscream, the Decepticons will be dealt a heavy blow," Magnus explained calmly to his superior.

"Optimus," the Autobot medic, Ratchet, called to them. "Fowler has returned."

Fowler’s car drove into the military hangar that served as their base, and he proceeded slammed the door furiously as he exited the vehicle.

"Did you secure Starscream?" Ultra Magnus asked as he walked over, getting straight to the point.

"Nope. Because that...that damn girl won't hand him over!" Fowler exclaimed in exasperation and threw his hands into the air.

"Girl?" Optimus asked as he walked over to the agent.

"A resident of the base, an aerospace engineer named Roxanne, registered Starscream under her name to repair. As long as he is, I can't take him until she's done with repairs. Which is _ridiculous_!!"

"Does she know it's a Decepticon, Agent Fowler?"

"She claims not to. Though she seemed knowledgeable about the jet in her possession."

"And his energon?" Ratchet interjected.

"She's got that too. But she's got a point. Unless I manage to convince Uncle Sam to get me a warrant, I can't take Starscream from her," Fowler stated and crossed his arms. "So either she really doesn't know what's going on, with innocent intentions, or she's in line with the Decepticons."

With that statement, Ratchet immediately scoffed. "The last time the Decepticons aligned themselves with a human, it blew up in their faces. What makes you think they'll try again? Decepticons do not like humans."

"Maybe this girl is holding him hostage?" one of the kids suggested from an elevated platform nearby.

"Miko," Ratchet started and pinched his nasal ridge in annoyance. "The Decepticons would not wait. They would swoop in there and kill her right after she transmits anything to them."

"Then there's a good chance she's just an aircraft enthusiast and a good engineer, right?" a tall, black-haired boy named Jack offered.

"We'll see. But unless we can get that warrant, Starscream isn't going anywhere. And to do that, we'll need to first prove that Starscream is well, Starscream. And that's going to be very difficult. She doesn't even want me on her property, to begin with..."

"And if we can manage to do that? Then what?" Magnus spoke up.

"Then we have probable cause to cancel her registration and claim Starscream for ourselves."

Magnus exchanged glances with Optimus and Ratchet, who were obviously thinking up ways to speed up the process.

"Also, I did some digging, and it turns out her father, Pilot Andrew Carter, flies an F-16 just like the one Starscream scanned," Agent Fowler went on as the awkward silence droned on. He opened his car door and reached inside, picking up a manila folder from the center console. "So I have a feeling she might believe Starscream is her father's plane. Disproving that comes with proving Starscream is who he is."

"Why does that matter in this situation?" Ultra Magnus huffed and raised an optic ridge at the liaison before him.

"Because that idea in her head is only going to make her more stubborn and unwilling to cooperate. And I think you already know that human women are stubborn things."

* * *

**Meanwhile, on the Nemesis...**

"Status report," Megatron barked at one of the Vehicons working on the lower level of the Nemesis control room.

"We have reclaimed a good portion of the mine, and energon harvest is back on schedule," the Vehicon reported.

"And progress on finding Starscream?" Megatron snarled.

"We've almost located him, Lord Megatro-agh!!”

The Vehicon was shot in the face.

"If the Autobots find him before we do, who knows what that insolent fool will give up to save his own hide!" Megatron roared furiously and slammed his fist down on the head console. His optics burned brighter as he did not trust Starscream to keep his trap shut at all.

"Lord Megatron," a deep, monotone voice sounded from off to his left.

Megatron's vision snapped in the direction of the voice and noticed Soundwave turned to face him. He had used Shockwave's voice and was pointing at one of his large monitors. Laserbeak's beacon was transmitting to the screen a set of coordinates. His fist still firmly planted in the controls, the silver mech hummed, "Starscream's crash site I assume..."

Soundwave only nodded and lowered his arm. Megatron let out a silent exhale and stood straighter, unballing his servo and raising it up to his comm. "Shockwave. Respond."

"Yes, Lord Megatron?"

"Starscream's location has been found. I'm sending you to investigate."

"As you wish, my liege."

The warlord then turned to his surveillance chief and ordered, "Soundwave. Activate a ground bridge for Shockwave to the coordinates received."

Soundwave nodded in compliance and accessed the bridge controls via his remote controls. Calculations appeared briefly on his dark visor of a mask. The bridge opened in Shockwave's lab to about a quarter-mile from the original coordinates, just to be on the safe side. 

The mono-optic con didn't hesitate on his end to walk through and entered the large forest. Laserbeak was hovering over the trees around them and upon Shockwave appearing, began in the direction of the crash. The scientist followed silently, letting the ground-bridge close behind him.

"Shockwave," Megatron called over the commlink as the scientist hiked through the branches and annoying foliage after the drone minicon.

"Yes, my liege?" Shockwave answered calmly.

"Figure out if he has been captured by the Autobots. If it turns out that coward spilled any Decepticon information, I'll have his head," Megatron demanded.

"Understood, Lord Megatron," Shockwave answered. He continued on his path until he stepped right into the large drag trail. To him though, it was no larger than maybe two strides wide. As he followed the earth-scarred path west, he noticed humans currently surrounding the central area Starscream had crashed into. His single optic glistened in scorn and scanned the area in search of Starscream’s corp-...body.

Several humans heard the heavy footfalls of the large mech and looked towards him in fear. Taking notice of this, Shockwave stepped further into their line of sight and glared at the humans.

"Pitiful fleshlings,” Shockwave started flatly. "Tell me. Where is the location of Commander Starscream?"

All the humans just backed away from him and some pulled out small, primitive devices. A logical reaction, but none of them answered him. Shockwave contemplated the best course of action for a moment before leaning down and picking up the nearest human. This provoked a larger reaction and several humans started yelling at him. Not that he paid attention to what they were saying since none of it was an answer.

"I'll ask again," he continued. "Where is Starscream? The jet that crashed. Where is it?"

A few fled like the insignificant species they were and even more yelled at him to put the human down. Typical of the human species. So easily aggravated and so blind to consequences when it really mattered. None knew better. A shame that even Vehicons were more aware. He stared down at them before squeezing the human in his grasp. It let out a yell of pain and the rest of the humans silenced. How pitiful.

"Last chance," Shockwave told them, his voice still flat but steadily becoming darker. "Where is the jet? It would be illogical to not answer me this time. Or this specimen will become my newest science experiment."

"With a girl!" one of them finally blurted out and pointed south. "That way! Now put Nick down!!"

Shockwave huffed quietly and dropped the human not a moment after he got his answer. "Nick" fell on his rear end painfully and was otherwise ignored by the giant scientist as he started south. He could hear the other humans flock to the poor fleshling, but he didn't care. They were at least wise enough not to try and follow him.

It didn't take long at all of shoving through the annoying trees of this world before he reached a large hangar that took up much land. Looking through the trees, he took note of Starscream’s mangled form from the forest through an open slit between the hangar doors. He took his scanner out of his subspace and scanned the area, but Starscream's signal failed to appear on the radar. To Shockwave, the only logical explanation would be death.

"Lord Megatron," Shockwave commed. "Starscream appears to have met his end. Shall I claim his corpse from the human's hands?"

"Does the human appear to pose any problem?" Megatron demanded.

Shockwave peered through the hangar doors again and spotted a small human child. A female, nonetheless. Next to her was an even smaller male human. He then scanned the building once again for any other organics and found none

"They appear to be merely children, my liege,” Shockwave answered.

"Let the human have his corpse then. The Autobots will likely claim it soon. It would serve no purpose on the warship except as a warning."

Without a second thought, and with his distaste for the commander, Shockwave nodded and a ground bridge opened behind him. He didn't hesitate to walk through once again and back to his lab where he could continue his work after this errand.

"The fool was insolent in his work," he commented to himself. "Though it is an unfortunate and embarrassing end to be met with it."


	3. A very long day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A quick A/N for you guys: this chapter onward will consist of third-person POVs instead of the previous more omniscient style in the other two chapters. The reason is that the first two were mostly introductory, and from here on, the story becomes more concentrated and easier to tell through POVs. That's all for my head's up, and enjoy the chapter!

**STARSCREAM P.O.V.**

The last thing Starscream could remember was an undying sense of agony. There was no part of his body that wasn't alive and exploding with pain when he had crashed. Everything had become dirt, smoke, then blackness. Now all he had heard were voices. Human voices, he figured, since they didn't sound Cybertronian. He wanted to just stand up, blast them in their tiny, insignificant faces, and fly away back to the Nemesis. But even if he wanted to, he couldn't move at all. Every attempt to move only brought him more pain. He could feel the metal around his t-cog crushed inward, which made it impossible for him to transform as well. His energon supply was also dropping steadily and with that, he was pretty sure he might die here.

"Alex, hand me that bolt fastener," a female voice pierced through his thoughts more clearly than it had before. 

"Magic word?" a younger voice sounded off next. Starscream couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl though.

"Please?" the female sighed.

"Ok!" the young-sounding human chimed as he heard it shuffle off.

Something then proceeded to push forward on his form, tilting him to a different angle. The sudden movement shot all kinds of agony through his shot nerves, and he tried to scream. But the only thing that came out was more of a groan. A pained, helpless groan. He ignored it.

"Sis, did you hear that?" the small voice called 'Alex' asked.

"Yeah...I think it's the same from earlier," the female answered.

He felt her run her puny, fleshy hands across his metal and could practically gag.

"Hello?" she called out. "Where are you? Are you...somewhere around here?"

Starscream resisted the urge to hiss at the human and remained quiet.

"Answer me, please! My name is Roxanne. I'm not going to do anything to you," the human called out again. She was saying something similar to the things he heard before he blacked out and ended up...wherever he was now.

It was silent for a few moments before this Alex spoke up. "They're not answering. Maybe we're hearing things?"

"No. I'm sure the pilot's here. Somewhere..." the girl, Roxanne, muttered.

Starscream hesitated before sighing inwardly. As annoying as it was, maybe she could help repair him or something... Anything to at least transform. It was getting uncomfortable being stuck like this.

Disgusted with himself, he mumbled somewhat quietly, "I’m h-here."

He didn't intend for his voice to come out like that, and it definitely hurt to talk. But he just needed her to repair the metal around his t-cog and maybe he could figure a good way out of this ridiculous predicament.

"Where are you? I can't hear you very well," Roxanne called out. He felt her feel around his plating again and he silently winced.

"I-I’m...uh...stuck,” Starscream lied hoarsely. "I just n-need you to f-fix someth-thing for m-me. Then I c-can get um...loose."

"Fix something? Where?" she asked, her voice becoming a little further away. He didn't need to see her to know she obviously wasn't sure where to talk to.

"Near the c-cockpit," Starscream answered, followed by a painful cough. The sooner he could stop talking, the better.

He had her move around for a few minutes before her hand slid over the area where his t-cog was stored.

"Th-There. Repair the m-metal in th-that area," he coughed out.

"Alright," the girl mumbled, and he listened to her walk away, most likely to get something.

As she did, Starscream closed his obviously broken optics and tried to relax just a little. It was difficult through the pain, but he did manage to calm himself. He just needed to transform. Then he could attempt to leave. If he could reach the Nemesis, maybe he would be fine. He tried his commlink quickly, but to no surprise, it was busted.

He only noticed that the Roxanne girl had come back when he felt a rotor of some sort moving around the dented plating. A tactic he often saw Knock Out use to get out dents in his finish. A few areas of the metal popped back with ease while others took a bit of time. He listened to her switch tools a few times to properly shape the metal back. And after what felt like forever, his t-cog was free from the crowded confinement.

"Can you get free now?" Roxanne asked.

"I-Indeed," Starscream rasped and began his transformation process.

It was painful, he'd admit. He was missing several key components of a jet, and the nose of his alt mode along with the cockpit was still very much crumpled and shattered. This in itself caused agony to explode throughout his midsection. His back felt odd and threw him slightly off-balance, and he already knew he was missing the tail of his alt. The blasts and injuries from the battle were still there on top of all that. Maybe he should have thought this through a little more...

He heard the girl and the small human let out a gasp and back away as he dropped to his knees. His optics were cracked and damaged but he could still barely make them out as well as his surroundings. Energon flowed profusely from some reopened wounds along his right side and from a few old ones too. When he thought about it now, it was very unlikely he would be able to get far in this state. Considering the now obvious fact that he was injured so badly that he could barely even stand. A loud clattering sound rang out as the girl dropped her tool in her shock, and the humans fell silent. 

"Don't b-be so sh-shocked," he mumbled hoarsely. "Y-You sound like you’ve s-seen an a-alien."

\---

**ROXANNE P.O.V.**

All she could do was stare. There was no word to describe the shock Roxanne got from what just happened. Right in front of her was a giant, mechanical, alien robot. This jet was a giant. Fricking. Alien.

Things just got a lot more real.

She just stared for what felt like forever until Alex screamed and ran back into the house. It was enough to snap her out of her daze though.

"What…What are you?... _Who_ are you?" Roxanne managed to stammer out.

"None of that m-matters, fleshling," the robot hissed and attempted to stand up. And it didn't take an expert to know that the action itself caused the alien a lot of pain. His left leg gave out, and he was forced to kneel back on the ground.

Roxanne took a step back as he did, but she stopped herself. This alien, robot or whatever, was alive. Probably... And they were the jet she said she was going to fix. She registered it under her name and everything. So she sucked up her courage and started by taking a few cautious steps towards him. He snarled at her and stood back up shakily, causing her to stop where she was.

"D...Don't stand," Roxanne swallowed, trying to sound calm. "You can't reopen more of the welds I placed..."

"Don't t-tell me what to d-do," the robot snapped at her hoarsely.

"Then try to look at it this way," she started carefully. "You can't fly away, and if you can barely stand you won't be able to run. And I think the military would love getting their hands on you."

He seemed to pause and process what she said, before asking, "What do y-you mean by 'I can't f-fly away'?"

"In case you haven't noticed, you're missing the tail of a plane, and your wings," Roxanne huffed.

" _Wh_ - _What_?!" he yelled in alarm and looked back to where his wings should be. She figured he hadn't noticed, considering how much pain the robot was probably in.

He looked frantic for a few moments before he spotted them laying propped up in her welding space. "Wh-Why are they d-detached?!"

"They were pretty mangled. I'm rebuilding them so I can reattach them for you," Roxanne answered warily, backing up a bit as she could practically feel the anger begin to radiate from him.

"Why you-!" he snarled at her and lunged down to grab her. She screamed and dove away to dodge his talons as they swiped at her. She stumbled backward on her hands and knees and knocked into her work desk. He grabbed at her again only for Roxanne to just barely scramble out of the way again.

The robot's bright red optics glowed furiously despite their broken state. She could only stare into them as she did her best to escape what was probably going to be her death for even trying to talk to this homicidal human killing terminator alien thing. But she was practically running blind as her eyes refused to leave the blazing red that had locked onto her form.

"W-Worthless fleshing!" he snarled as he chased her in his injured state, managing to avoid the large C-17 nearby. Not that she cared right now.

Roxanne barely comprehended Alex's head suddenly peek through the door to the hangar nervously to see what was going on and freeze when he saw this giant alien swiping at his sister blindly.

"H...Hey!" Alex shouted loudly at him. Roxanne's head finally turned away from this killer robot to her brother and with wide eyes, she yelled, waving an arm for emphasis, "Alex! Go back inside!"

He ignored her and continued shouting, "Leave my sister alone you...you big bully!"

The giant mech snarled and turned his attention towards her brother. She could see him visibly tense in fear as the robot snapped, "The name i-is Starscream, f-foolish human! A-And you are n-nothing more th-than a bug under m-my ped!"

Roxanne's eyes widened in fear at the notion that he could, no, _would_ kill her brother. Thinking fast, she looked around frantically for anything she could use to fight back, even if just for a moment. Long enough to for them to escape. She ended up snatching up her large welding torch, which she had always thought looked a good amount like a flamethrower. Maybe, just maybe, this alien didn't know much about human tech.

She scrambled to her feet and ran over to where she had his wings perched and just as he approached Alex, she shouted to him, "Hey! Starscream! Step away from my brother!"

He paused and turned to her with a sneer, "Or w-what."

"Or I'll...I'll burn your wings to the point of no return!" she snapped and directed the torch to some open wires, doing her best to sound confident. Now, of course, lighting those severed wires would do plenty of damage. But it would still be repairable. Roxanne silently prayed to any god in the universe that this would work. That he didn't know about Earth technology.

"Y-You're b-bluffing!" he snarled at her as he glanced cautiously at his detached appendages. She placed her finger on the trigger.

"Try me, tall dark and broody."

He hesitated and seemed to contemplate the risks.

She bit the inside of her cheek and swallowed, silently praying, _Please take the bait, please take the bait, please take the bait, please take the bait..._

"And if I l-leave the small human a-alone?" he hummed thoughtfully.

"You leave _both_ of us alone, and I'll repair you and we never have to see each other again," Roxanne stated flatly. Her eyes locked with those red ones once again as she refused not to be swayed by their intensity.

He scoffed. "P-Please. I would r-rather put my faith in Sh-Shockwave than a human's t-tiny, organic servos."

"Well they aren't here right now, are they? You can bleed to death for all I care. But I don't think you want that."

Starscream's crack optics narrowed at her. She kept her gaze locked stubbornly back in response. This silence went on for a few minutes before the alien answered, "F-Fine then. I w-will allow you t-to perform repairs on me in exchange for n-not killing you. Once th-the Decepticons show up though, y-you will release me and this en-encounter will h-have never h-happened."

"Fine," Roxanne huffed and slowly lowered the welding torch. She did her best not to let her shaking arms be seen by him as she tried to let the tension leave her body. Curious though, she hesitated before asking, "Uh...so what's a Decepticon? So I, ya know, know when I see one?"

Starscream rolled his optics. "A-Anyone like me w-with this."

He tapped the scratched up insignia on his chest that Roxanne could only describe as a sharp, pointed eagle-like marking.

"Is that like, a coat of arms or something?" she asked.

"A c-coat of...w-what?" he asked in return.

"I-...Nevermind. So if that's your coat of- uh, insignia thingy, are there other ones?"

Now she was becoming genuinely curious as she tried to unwind. But she could tell Starscream was getting sick of the unrelated questions.

"Yes, yes, th-there are quite a f-few. Now, a-about my r-repairs..."

She gave him a flat look for a moment before rolling her eyes. "I'm on it, I'm on it. Just sit against that wall."

Roxanne pointed to the nearest clear wall, and Starscream appeared to debate whether or not to actually listen to her before doing so. He growled roughly in annoyance before slowly sitting down. He gritted his denta in and leaned against the wall once he sat; his right hand clutching his midsection. Several other wounds had also reopened along his body due to his movements. It was blatantly obvious he was not a fan of this situation at all. The fact he was listening to a human seemed to disgust him. But she was practically his only way of being repaired, so the stubborn alien would just have to be patient.

Alex came into the room very hesitantly. Starscream noticed the movement and looked towards him. Alex froze again as he did and decided to give him a small, nervous wave. The silver robot rolled his eyes and turned his head away from the child. Alex exhaled and went over to where Roxanne was grabbing supplies. He watched silently, looking back occasionally to check to make sure Starscream didn't try anything funny. The alien didn't do anything but rest his head against the wall he was leaned against and close his eyes.

After ten minutes of gathering supplies, Roxanne grabbed everything she needed and walked over to the large silver titan in her hangar. As she did, the mech opened his eyes and glanced down at her. In a way, she understood why he was so uncomfortable. She barely reached up to the end of his ankle. The fact she got him to listen to her at all amazed her. But she wasn't complaining. I mean, she wasn't dead. Her brother wasn't dead. So everything was good.

Roxanne began repairs on the areas she could reach around his legs. There wasn't a single part of Starscream that wasn't damaged in some way. Not only that, but she could practically feel the red-eyed mech's glare fixed on her as she welded back together pieces of plating and metal. On the plus side, this whole situation did a very good job of distracting herself from any other pressing matters.

\---

**SHORT STARSCREAM P.O.V.**

Starscream didn't know what else to do but sit there and let the human work. Yes, he wanted nothing more than to crush this girl under his peds. At the same time, while he would never even think of admitting this, she did pose a small threat. Starscream was no medic. So any threat towards his ability to fly made him feel extremely vulnerable. Not like he would ever admit that of course. In any case, the Decepticons must have realized by now he was gone and injured. Surely they'd come for him eventually. Megatron, while rather cruel, knew he was much more useful on the ship than anywhere else.

But he couldn't help but feel like something was wrong. Decepticon surveillance, especially under the watchful optics of Soundwave, was very keen. How long has it been since he crashed..? They should've found his drag trail by now. Perhaps Megatron was just punishing his incompetence. Again. Curse that warlord to the pit. Then again, shouldn't have the Autobots have found him as well? And this world's military? Surely they would've most definitely acted by now.

Starscream thought about this for a few moments before deciding he was in too much pain to even want to think about such things. They would most likely resolve themselves later, and he'd worry about that when the time came. Looking down at the human repairing him, he only glared for a while until his talkative nature wouldn't let him stay silent.

"Roxanne, was i-it?" the seeker muttered as she worked. The human glanced up at him slightly before refocusing on what she was doing.

"Yeah. What about it?" she muttered out, sounding cautious. He smirked knowing his presence had left its mark.

"How m-much experience do you a-actually have repairing j-jets?" he asked.

"Enough," she shrugged as she worked. That didn't make him any more comfortable with his situation as his frown deepened.

"How's about this," Roxanne started before he got a chance to say anything more. "We take turns. I'll answer your questions if you answer my questions. Deal?"

Starscream narrowed his optics at her and hesitated before sighing. "Fine..."

This was going to be a long, long day...

\---

**ROXANNE P.O.V.**

It had been about five hours since Roxanne had started working on repairing Starscream. By now, it was dark outside, and she had only taken a break to put Alex to bed. The little back and forth questionnaire she had started had also been going along a lot more smoothly than she thought it would. For starters, she learned that Starscream's insignia was one of many. There was his, which was apparently those of Decepticons, ones of Autobots, ones of Predacons, ones of neutrals, and other occasional unique ones that other aliens, who she learned were called "Cybertronians", developed to represent a group or faction. Roxanne had also learned that Autobots were his enemies and that they would most likely try and come capture him. A fact in which was alarming in itself, as that made the possibility of more giant alien robots appearing at her home fairly high.

Come to think of it, that Flower guy had made a strange expression when he asked about who she now knew as Starscream. He must've known that he was a Cybertronian. What else was he hiding then?

Ah...Thinking about it just made her brain hurt. It was late. She should be sleeping not worrying about stuff that really wasn't even her business.

Roxanne exited Alex's room after tucking him in and let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Back to the hangar...

\---

Roxanne reentered the hangar with a silent exhale. Looking up at the large robot sitting across the large space, she couldn't help but shudder. This was going to take some getting used to. Having a giant alien metal robot sitting in your hangar that could kill you at any second if he wanted to wasn't a very pleasant thought to have. Not only that, but Roxanne didn't trust this guy at all alone in _her_ hangar bay. So she was going to have to force herself to spend the night in the hangar. In the dark. With a killer robot.

God this night could not get worse...

On the other hand, Roxanne had successfully managed to repair the majority of one of his legs in the span of the five hours she spent working on it, as well as placing patch jobs on some of the other more gaping wounds in the robot's plating and mesh.

Starscream's optics, as he had corrected her, were closed right now as he leaned against the wall she had told him to use. He didn't look asleep from what Roxanne could tell. Actually, she didn't even know if robots slept... Did they even eat??

_No no no..._ Roxanne thought to herself. _Stop thinking about that. You can ask him tomorrow...It's way too late to be pondering about the physics of how the hell this jack the ripper alien thing who has emotions and pain functions. Physics can wait... I'm way too tired for this._

Roxanne sighed before walking over to Starscream. If he had heard her footsteps, he didn't react and stayed where he was.

"Screamer?" she called to him once she reached the base of his leg.

He opened his optics slightly and glanced down at her with an angry glare. "I th-thought I told y-you not t-t-to call me th-that, puny f-fleshling."

"Well, I told you not to call me a 'fleshling', and yet here we are," Roxanne huffed back in response. "I'll call you by your real name when you call me by mine."

Starscream grumbled something inaudibly in response before leaning back again. "What d-did you want, flesh b-bag."

Roxanne growled under her breath in annoyance, which only earned her a brief smirk from the large mech.

"I just wanted to know if you sleep at all," she hissed through gritted teeth. It was way too late for this. "I'm turning off the lights and staying here for the night to make sure you don't break anything."

"R-Recharging is th-the term you're l-looking for," Starscream hummed absentmindedly, seemingly ignoring her latter comment.

"And are you going to...recharge tonight?" she asked blatantly in a flat tone.

"If you st-stop asking me questions, I m-might."

Roxanne glared at him for a little while longer before letting her shoulders relax a bit as she walked over to the power panel near the hangar door. She picked up a key from the work desk nearby and unlocked the circuit box. Inside were multiple different switches and wires connecting to each other. She grabbed the handle of the largest switch near the top and flipped it from the up position to the downwards one. At once, the lights in the hangar started to go off one by one until the only light source was of the moon outside the windows of the hangar bay and the glow from Starscream's glowing, bright red optics.

Roxanne walked past her desk using what little she could see before reaching a ladder bolted to the wall. She grabbed hold of one of the rungs and began climbing up to a catwalk platform jutting out from the wall about 20 feet in the air, supported by metal beams attached to said wall. On that platform was a makeshift bed Roxanne had briefly thrown together at the last minute to sleep in for the night. It was made of a large sleeping bag and two pillows, as well as a comforter she took from their storage closet. The young adult glanced over at Starscream in the dark one last time as she crawled into the bed.

The seeker's optics had closed again, and his head along with his upper body was dimly illuminated by the moon outside. Had he not tried to kill her and her brother when they first met, Roxanne would've described him as almost majestic while he was "recharging".

But as instantly as that thought arrived, his sharp red optics cut deep into her mind's eye. Roxanne flinched as the image of those piercing and enraged red optics burned its way into her head. Fear sent a deep shiver down her spine and through her shoulders. Had this alien been more knowledgeable about human tech, she would be dead. Worse, her brother most certainly would be dead as well.

Roxanne curled up into the bed she made for herself, and all she could feel was dread. She had no proof he would leave them alone after he was repaired. Or maybe that "Shockwave" would come and they would kill her together. She had forgotten to ask about them... What if he was bigger and even stronger than Starscream???

She curled up a bit tighter, her mind racing now that all she had was silence. Roxanne could only think about what these aliens might do to her family, and with every shut of her eyes, those bright red optics pierced right through any peace.

There was no way she would be able to sleep well tonight...


	4. Annoyance and Entertainment

**STARSCREAM P.O.V.**

The next morning, Starscream awoke from his recharge cycle at the time he normally did on the Nemesis: bright and early o'five-hundred. His internal alarm went off and automatically activated his systems from its recharge cycle. His cracked optics blinked open and he groaned slightly under his breath. Of all the fragging things that weren't broken, it had to be his stupid alarm...

Starscream sat up straighter from the position he had been sleeping in and did his best to stretch whatever didn't hurt when he moved. Which included the leg that fleshling "Roxanne" had fixed. She was so much slower than any medic Starscream had ever met in his long lifecycle, but she was thorough, to say the least. The limb was completely rid of pain and he figured he could probably put some kind of weight on it eventually.

He glanced around at his surroundings briefly, doing his best to see with what vision he had left. He knew where his wings lay on a construction table awaiting repair, and he subconsciously clicked his tongue in distaste. Next to them was a large aircraft that was maybe two to three times larger than he was. It reminded him of the Cybertronian dropships used to transport large quantities of soldiers to battlefields.

Starscream also knew that there were large doors in the front and back of the hangar that spanned from the floor to around the height of the ceiling. And that he figured that out using what knowledge he had of the human world. But as he tried to piece together his environment among the splotches of color everywhere, he found himself searching for that small human, Roxanne. Didn't she say she would be recharging in here last night? Where was she?

He attempted to stand up to get a better look, only to be painfully reminded that his frame was still extremely damaged. Pain shot up his body with a hiss as he tried and forced him to sit back down. 

_This is utterly pathetic..._

The situation he was in made him growl. How he absolutely _despised_ being grounded, to begin with. But he couldn't even stand up now?! Completely _ridiculous_! Seekers were supposed to be noble and graceful Cybertronians. And the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to die in the Pit out of pure embarrassment. His only saving grace was that none of his "colleagues" were around to witness this. They would surely mock him for weeks.

He was left in silence and ridiculed his situation in his head for several more minutes before a very small shifting sound caught his attention. Thank Primus his audio-receptors still functioned properly as well. The large con looked up towards the direction of the sound whilst doing his best to focus what remained of his optics. Starscream was able to make out a platform a little lower than eye level if he were to be standing. He noticed a smaller object on the said platform that he could only assume to be the fleshling, most likely still recharging.

Starscream leaned back against the wall and began to use the spare time listing his options. His leg was fixed, so with maximum effort, he could at least limp out of here. But currently, this crude structure appeared to be keeping him from Autobot servos. Otherwise, he was positive he would've been captured by now. Why? He didn't know. He suspected it had something to do with their desire to avoid contact with this pitiful race. That 'Agent Fowler' would probably have to facilitate any kind of communication with humans.

Another option would be to have his commlink fixed then contact the Nemesis. He could ask "Roxanne" to do that today if he felt the need to. The only thing he found strange was that they hadn't located him yet. Or if they have, then Lord Megatron must be plotting something for or against him. Surely they wouldn't have left him here knowing that given time, the Autobots would capture him.

Of course, Starscream could always just go with his original plan. Let this pitiful fleshling finish her repairs, then head back to the Nemesis in a stunning recovery. No...no one would believe that. But at least he could get proper medical attention and an explanation as to what the frag is going on.

"Morning, Screamy."

A voice cut through his thoughts as Starscream glanced back over to the platform. "Roxanne" had stood up from where she was laying and was now leaning against the railing. Even though frankly, Starscream only really saw her as a distorted blur. 

"Did you know you mutter when you think?" she smirked.

He was confused for a second before she continued with a cocky purr and said, "I can fix your commlink ya know. And while watching you try to hobble out of here would be hilarious to watch, it probably wouldn't be too effective, 'oh graceful seeker one'."

The energon in Starscream's face heated up in ignorance as he glared at her. "And wh-what? You were a-awake this wh-whole time?!"

"You know, you're actually kind of cute when you're mad," she mocked as Starscream clenched his denta with a growl. He watched her climb down the ladder from the platform to the ground. Oh, how he wished he could just _step on her._

"Why you little-! If I w-wasn't s-so p-preoccupied with b-being immobile, I-I would kill y-you on the s-s-spot!" Starscream shouted angrily at her. Primus were all humans this infuriating?!

"Aw, you even stutter more when you yell," Roxanne snickered with most likely a huge grin on her face. Starscream could just hear the bittersweet malice dripping from her voice. He could almost shudder.

Even so, he was enraged almost completely so with embarrassment. Only Knock Out had ever really heard him truly monologue in full consciousness, much less subconsciousness. And now she even had the guts to mock him about it?!

"I'd w-watch who y-you're s-speaking to, h-human," Starscream hissed between growls.

"So should you, Screamy," Roxanne hummed as she stretched. Her arms extended above her head as her fingers locked together to stretch. "I mean, I am the one repairing you. I could just plant a bomb in your leg, and you wouldn't know until it's way too late."

Starscream hesitated a bit in response. These were one of the times in which he silently wished he had studied more about humans and their capabilities. Yes, he knew physically that humans were weak, organic things with no real significant purpose. But with technology? They captured Breakdown of all mechs, didn't they? Who says they can't pull anything else off like that?

He must have hesitated too long, because Roxanne spoke up again, "Guess you got the point, hm?"

Starscream glared at her but otherwise said nothing else. He let out a short huff of air before looking away angrily. He heard her chuckle in victory from her place on the floor as he did. He needed to get out of here as soon as possible.

At the moment, though, Starscream listened to her shuffle around on the floor. There were several clicking noises and some fidgeting before the lights to the hangar all began to turn on. Outside, it was still early morning, and the sun hadn't quite risen enough yet for her to work without the lights. Roxanne then walked over his peds, probably to fix his other leg, which would most likely also take all fragging day.

Starscream glanced down at her and watched Roxanne promptly pick up a large laser scalpel wordlessly and get to work. Since there were no vocal complaints from him, she opened up a few panels on the side of his leg and did her best to get a good look before letting out a low whistle.

"Wh-What?" Starscream hissed when he heard her whistle. 

"Your leg isn't just broken, Screamy," Roxanne answered with a nervous look on her face. "It looks like the bottom half of the frame in your leg has completely misaligned...It's jutting into the wires and looks like it half fused with the piping..."

Starscream was silent for a few seconds before he sighed loudly and he helm fell back against the wall. _Great._ Fragging _fantastic_.

"You couldn't feel it..? I mean, it's not just some flesh wound. And you were standing, somewhat, yesterday-"

"O-Oh, I d-don't know. M-M-Maybe I w-was too d-distracted b-by the r-rest of t-the s-searing pain o-of CRASH. L-LANDING," he replied bitterly and glared at her puny fleshy face.

"Right..." Roxanne muttered, ignoring his tone and looking back to the leg. "Either way, trying to figure out your mechanizations is difficult enough. But to realign your leg would not only be extremely painful, but it would take a long time. Translation: near impossible."

Starscream growled under his breath in annoyance, but he tried not to curse out loud or talk or whatever it was he apparently did whenever he wasn't thinking and annoyed. "Whatever...Just f-focus on f-fixing everything e-else."

Roxanne glanced up at him. He watched her nod in acknowledgment, then went to replace the panels she had removed.

Starscream left her to do her work, knowing full well he could knock her away with ease should she try something funny in the end. He shifted his weight to better support himself with the wall behind him before resting his head back and closing his cracked optics.

His mind drifted back to last night and their little "QnA" session. Being careful not to speak out loud, he went over the tidbits of information he had gotten from her.

For starters, he learned that this hangar didn't, in fact, necessarily belong to her. This was her creator's property, therefore allowing Roxanne full access to the structure. Another thing was her brother. Alex was his name? Humans have such strange naming schemes... He was apparently only seven years of age. Which would explain his sheer idiocy in daring to stand up to him. This only supported his belief that all human spawn are impulsive and crude. And annoying, as the one named "Miko" proved quite easily.

He also learned that Roxanne's creators were both members of the government's military. The male was a pilot in the 'Air Force' while the female was some type of recruiting officer. Though he found Roxanne was very quick to avoid the subject. Starscream was almost tempted to do some digging once he got back to the Nemesis. It should be easy enough. Nothing is safe from Soundwave after all. A simple request and he would know everything.

Humanity's weak online infrastructure aside, most of the questions Starscream had asked her were moot. The only other item of importance was her qualifications. He wasn't completely satisfied with her explanation of an aerospace engineer, but at least she wasn't going to break him more than he already was. His real concern was getting back to the Nemesis to be properly repaired. He had never appreciated Knock Out as much as he did right now.

His thoughts were, once again, interrupted by a very loud series of **_CLANGS_** and a not no loud, "Shit-!"

Starscream onlined his optics and looked down at where Roxanne was standing. From the looks of it, she had tripped over some kind of metal box on the floor and scattered tools everywhere. The fleshling had also landed on the ground nearby.

Roxanne quickly looked up at him with a glare and opened her mouth to say something, but even though Starscream knew little about human swears, he was still faster.

"Language."

\---

**ROXANNE P.O.V.**

That damn. Voice. She hated that stupid voice so much already. And it's been less than 24 hours since she's met this pain in the ass.

She could only describe Starscream's voice, when under perfect control, as smooth, slick, and downright malicious. Especially when he was purposely returning her comments in full. Not to say that Roxanne didn't think she deserved it. She knew that if you make a crude comment, you get a crude comment. It was the way he delivered his words. The very way in which he spoke would make her blood boil in the most skin-crawling way. Starscream was amazing at presenting his words in such a way that you could hear the very intention they wished to serve.

And he had only said one. One word had just set her off. Maybe it was coupled with the exhaustion or the new scratch on her ankle from tripping. But he had successfully pissed her the hell off. She didn't even know why, really.

"Shut. Up," Roxanne growled under her breath at the robot in front of her.

She was doing her best not to start yelling at Starscream right then and there. It would only give him the complete satisfaction of knowing he had gotten under her skin. Oh yes, the word 'Decepticon' fits him _perfectly_. 

Starscream was grinning victoriously already. His optics glowed brighter in his current satisfaction as Roxanne scowled at him. She was only lucky that Alex was still asleep at this hour, and wouldn't be up until eight or nine. It was a Sunday morning, and even she didn't want to be up this early.

Thinking back, she still had to finish Alex's present. His birthday was in less than three days. So she hummed, albeit pettily, "I have other things to work on besides you, ya know, Screamy."

She watched him roll his optics. It was her more polite way of telling him to stop being annoying. He looked down at Roxanne before he answered, his grin turning into more of a smirk, "I don't doubt it, f-fleshling. B-But I thought y-you wanted m-me out of y-your way."

She hated the word "fleshling".

"I think I could manage your presence a few days longer," Roxanne hissed as she glared at that smug smirk on his stupid face. "So don't be arrogant."

"Arrogant? Me? H-Hardly," Starscream purred smoothly. His voice rumbled in his throat in such a way that made her shiver. He was having fun, wasn't he? Toying with her, at the very least. The pompous ass.

Roxanne fumed silently to herself before kicking his ped in irritation. And for once in her life, she had nothing to say. Any sarcastic comment would be matched with an equally snappy quip, and she had a sickening feeling Starscream could keep this up all day. Roxy had never really met anyone who she felt could catch up to her snappy attitude until now. In all honesty, she was mildly impressed.

That impression was short-lived though as she heard him chuckle in amusement. Her gaze snapped back up to the giant alien as he struggled not to laugh at Roxanne's feeble attempt to get him to shut up.

"It's not funny!" she shouted defiantly without thinking.

That was the last straw before Starscream burst out laughing and her face flushed in anger and embarrassment.

\---

**STARSCREAM P.O.V.**

He really couldn't help it. He had successfully returned her sarcastic comments about his outer monologues in full. And Starscream frankly found her whole little spiel of sorts hilarious. This puny, insignificant organic was demanding him, the Decepticon second-in-command, to shut up? She was so defiant, cocky, and impulsive, it was hilariously entertaining.

Roxanne had started shouting at him angrily as he laughed. Starscream didn't hear anything she was saying though. It was funny enough to hear her continue her pointless endeavor.

Eventually, the human gave up shouting at him and his laughter slowly became more of a wheeze. From what he could tell, she had her arms crossed with a pissy look on her face, similar to that of sparkling. Even though Starscream was pretty sure she was much older than the equivalent of such.

"What?" Starscream grinned, still chuckling to himself. "M-Mad?"

"Screw you," Roxanne grumbled just barely loud enough for him to hear.

"I g-guess so," Starscream purred triumphantly and leaned back once again to the wall behind him. He took great joy from the angry huff that followed, despite the condition he was currently in.

While he would never admit it, right now the situation wasn't too bad. Despite everything, and his opinions, Roxanne had the potential to be very entertaining to toy with. The younger child wasn't around to be annoying, and he wasn't in too much pain if he didn't move. Although now his chest and midsection hurt from laughing with his injuries.

That wasn't to say he enjoyed Roxanne's company. He still would kill her, given the chance, that much was true. But he was never one to like being alone for too long. Especially in such a state. Call it seeker's downfall if you will. Their race has always been a social kind. So some company, be it from someone like her, was not disregarded. Even over the immense collection of sarcasm that she had in her back pocket.

He eventually closed his optics as he listened to the girl shuffle around once more, probably cleaning up her mess. Starscream focused on relaxing his frame. He made the conscious decision not to think about where the Decepticons or even the Autobots were. It was still too early to ponder, and it wasn't going to do him any good right now. He managed to relax considerably before slipping into a calm recharge. It was still early, and he didn't have anywhere to be after all. A few more cycles (hours) of rest wouldn't hurt.

\---

**ROXANNE P.O.V.**

She really wanted to plant a bomb in him. She really did. There were only two problems with that. The first problem was that she didn't have a bomb. And she didn't know how to make one either, so that was already a good reason for that very favorable option to be thrown out the window.

The second problem was simply that while Roxanne admitted she could be a jerk, she wasn't the kind of person who plants a bomb on someone while they were sleeping. Sorry, "recharging". How did she know he was recharging? Well, she didn't really. She just kind of assumed after knocking on his leg a few times and getting no reaction that he was somewhere in dreamland. Which was fine with her. After his blatant display of amusement at her failed attempt to keep the giant robot under control, she had wanted him to shut up.

Roxanne glared at him, silently cursing him for looking so calm right now. It pissed her off that he could be so calm while she was still fuming to herself at...what time was it now..? 5:46? And she thought yesterday felt long...

With a sigh, she forced herself to take a deep breath and calm down. Getting worked up over a dumb robot sitting in her hangar wasn't going to get her anywhere. She wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of waking up to her still being angry. And after a moment of stopping to breathe, Roxanne went back to cleaning up the multiple tools scattered all over the floor. She didn't want to go tripping over them too, and she had always been somewhat of an organized freak when it came to her mechanical tools.

As she worked on picking up everything she had spilled, Roxanne occupied her thoughts with ways to fix the rest of Starscream. In his jet mode, she could reach all the components she needed to repair, and in general, knew where everything was. Now, as a bipedal being, she had no idea where everything was. From what she could tell, his cockpit and engines went up to his midsection where they embedded themselves. His wings had been attached to his back, and his shoulders appeared to have come from the aft fuselage. Everything else though remained unknown. She might be able to convince him to transform back into a jet, but that would probably cause more harm than good at the moment.

Roxanne figured she would just have to repair what she could before thinking of a more practical way to repair his more serious injuries. She couldn't well reattach his wings when they were 15 to 20 feet in the air after all.

She finished picking up the remainder of her supplies and reorganized them back into her toolbox while leaving a handful out to work with. Roxy couldn't fix his other leg, so she had to pick something else to repair.

The young adult turned her attention to Starscream and began to evaluate what she could fix right now. From what she could see, most of his "bleeding" had stopped and/or slowed down. More notably so around his midsection and shoulders. There was still a small pool of the blue liquid at his hips, which she had learned yesterday was called "energon". She didn't quite understand what it was, but that was mostly due to the Cybertronian's poor explanation of the substance. All she got from his complicated spiel about how energon works are that it's essentially his lifeblood and that it's difficult to acquire. Impossibly so for someone of her stature. Something about "harvesting" and "processing" and crystals. Roxanne still couldn't make heads or tails of the subject matter.

Refocusing on the actual problem, she noted that his forearms were resting close enough to the ground for her to work on them without bothering the mech too much. Did she care about bothering the annoying silver freak? No. Did she want a grumpy, half-asleep alien snarling at her? Bigger no.

So with a heavy sigh, Roxanne grabbed her frame welder and buzzsaw and got to work. She started by walking over slowly to the mech's right arm and rapping on it quietly.

After receiving no reaction, she upped it up to a knock. Still no response.

Somewhat satisfied that she wasn't going to get punted across the room for cutting his arm open, she continued to open up the metal and begin repairs. He had asked her to continue repairs anyway, so if he was mad when he woke up, she would kick his hypocritical ass.

Roxanne let the steady whirr of the buzzsaw come to life and took it to the area just above his wrist and...talons.

_I wonder if he's ever stabbed himself with those things..._ she thought absentmindedly as she carefully removed a decent sized area of the mesh.

She looked up to check the status of his recharge. His face remained neutral, and the glow of his optics pulsed faintly under his eyelids in rhythm with his chest, which rose and fell every few seconds. At least he was still asleep.

The woman stood there staring for a little bit before she realized that she had been doing so. She shook her head quickly to herself and growled under her breath. _What the hell do you think you're doing, Roxy. Work goddammit before he wakes up and starts pestering you._

Staring was completely natural, she reasoned to herself and impulsively dove into the hole she had made. Any sane person would stare at someone like him on an organic planet. Come to think of it, if she remembered, she should ask him why he was here. Didn't aliens usually have reasons for coming to other planets? Like hostile takeover? Abduction? Sure, it _sounds_ cliche, but there was no better opportunity to ask.

No, no no no. She should be focusing on the repairs. Why did she have so many freaking questions??

Roxy started to wriggle her frame welder inside the hole alongside her half-immersed body when she remembered that she needed a light source... Her shoulders dropped, annoyed at herself for forgetting something so trivial and clambered her way back out to grab her headlamp. Her thoughts must be wandering too much, she figured. That, and it was almost 6:00 in the morning on a Sunday.

_Come on. Just treat it like a restoration project._

She exhaled as she walked back over to her tools and sorted through her other tools for her headlamp.

_Don't look directly at him, don't think about him, just focus on what you have to do._

Roxanne eventually located it underneath a few drills next to her screwdrivers and slipped it around her head, adjusting the light to rest on her forehead.

_It's just another day at the shop. Just another day at work._

She turned back to the mech, and she couldn't help it. Roxy snuck a quick glance up at the mech's face and immediately regretted the decision.

Her eyes were now stuck on his face, which was tilted at an angle to face in the opposite direction. This was not a good time to be learning more about herself, but Roxanne found out rather quickly that she was fascinated with studying his expressions around the times he wasn't trying to kill her. Her stomach twisted to several knots at even the notion that she might be _remotely_ interested in anything about "Starscream".

Nevermind the fact that he looked strangely calm when he was slee- recharging. And nevermind the fact that his form was noticeably less aggressive when he was unconscious. She _hated_ him. And Roxy didn't care that hate was a strong word, she had a strong hate. He had threatened to kill not only her but her little brother as well. And she had a feeling she was playing with scissors around strings, and one wrong cut and everything would come crashing down.

Roxanne roughly shoved away the feeling of fascination and tore her gaze off his facial features before she could debate this with herself further. Her grip around her frame welder tightened, as she had almost forgotten she had been holding it, to begin with. She strode back over to where she had begun working and reimmersed herself in the damages done to his forearm. She refused to acknowledge her prior revelation and busied herself with mental repair notes.

_Have to fix the internal wiring in two areas...Minimal internal damage. I'll focus on the ripped up mesh on the outside after this. The left arm should have similar results. Minor bleeding near the joints, probably going to have to replace some piping._

The large mech shifted a few times as she prepared a few areas for realignment. So on multiple occasions, she was swung to the side and, much to her annoyance, had to re-realign a few extra cables. But Starscream stayed unconscious, so she considered that a win. Despite being tossed around like a doll.

She kept at it for another hour and a half, and the giant mech had yet to wake up. But the time had been well spent finishing up his arm's internal problems. Though she was going to have to chat with him about moving when she worked. Roxanne welded up the parts she had removed and stepped back with a long sigh. She glanced at the digital clock on one of her higher selves. 7:23. She had time to start the exterior of his appendage before heading inside to make breakfast for her and Alex. Not that she necessarily wanted to, but she needed to start moving a little faster.

Roxy thought about doing good on her point to work on other projects, but Starscream also had a point. She wanted him out of her way as fast as possible. Alex could wait a little longer for a model C-17.

She placed her portable frame welder on her workbench and stepped over to her large welding torch that she had tricked Starscream with into thinking it could destroy his wings. Roxanne carried it over to his arm and stood at the base near his talons. His elbow joint was maybe eight feet in the air at the moment, so she could only get to so much of his arm before being 5'10" was just not tall enough.

Should she wake him up? Well, she wouldn't want to be woken up right now if she were him. Maybe recharging healed the body the same way sleeping did for humans. And she didn't want to risk getting into a screaming match with someone amply named "Starscream". Leaving him and figuring out something else was probably the nicest thing to do...

But why was she even thinking about being considerate to this aft? She wanted him gone, and he wasn't worth being considerate to.

Solidifying her resolution, she promptly marched over to Starscream's arm that she had just fixed and banged on the limb a few times. She figured to him, the action felt like a tap, if like anything at all.

"Yo! Screamer!"

No answer. He only shifted his arm closer to his body. But his facial expression darkened slightly, so she took that as some kind of sign. Or he might just hate the nickname even in his sleep.

"Screeeeeeeeamer!!"

He shifted his repaired leg outwards a little and his face scrunched up around his nasal ridge.

Roxy rolled her eyes. Why was she trying to be nice? She kicked his arm instead. "WAKE UP, STILETTOS."

That got something out of him. His right hand wasted no time snatching up the black-haired woman and she screamed in surprise as she was brought up to his optic level. At first, she struggled against the grip on instinct, trying to keep herself from being potentially stabbed by his talons. But Roxy was quick to go limp. Very much limp.

His bright red optics were wide open now, and at such a close distance, she could see the hairline cracks and not-so-subtle deep cracks that hindered the mech's vision. She felt the color drain from her face as she was met with those glowing optics, and she could almost see red steam fizzing out from the edges in anger. She swallowed slowly as once again, her eyes locked onto the blinding red.

"Y-You're just _begging_ f-for a p-painful death, aren't y-you, _flesh bag_."


End file.
